"The family is very distraught and very upset," the friend said. "I am here to support her.''

Earlier, the Lebanese Consul-General Mohammed Skayni received confirmation that Mr Sheikh was one of 12 people killed when 100 pro-government loyalists attacked the office of an opposition political party.

Mr Skayni said he had spoken to Mrs Sheikh on the telephone "and she was devastated".

"She was barely able to talk," he said.

"Mr Sheikh went to Lebanon to see family and friends and he was just caught up in the fighting and he died. It is very tragic.''

The Age online believes Mr Sheikh was a member of the Lebanese National party and was in its local office - a gathering point - when he was killed by pro-government supporters.

Antoun Issa, a member of the Australian Lebanese Youth Association, today said Mr Sheikh had been visiting his parents for the first time in several years after emigrating to Australia with his wife in the 1990s, Mr Issa said.

The mob attack was part of fighting in Lebanon between Shiites loyal to the Lebanese opposition group Hezbollah and Druze supporters of the ruling coalition.

In the country's worst civil strife since the 1975-90 war, dozens have been killed and more injured.

Mr Sheikh, from Craigieburn in Melbourne's northern fringe, was in a coalition opposition office, used for providing the community with safety advice and information, when it was stormed by a pro-government mob, Mr Issa said.

He said the mob attacked everyone inside the building, including Mr Sheikh, who was not in Lebanon for any political reason.

"He just happened to be there in the wrong place at the wrong time when a mob of about 100 pro-government loyalists attacked,'' Mr Issa said.

"It was quite brutal. Some people tried to escape and were hunted down and killed.''

Mr Issa said he knew Mr Sheikh through family connections.

Mr Sheikh, who had been due to return home to Australia in two weeks, had not seen his parents for several years.

He and wife had become Australian citizens, started their family here and had just finished building a family home, Mr Issa said.

He said the Sheikhs' four children were aged about three to 12 years old.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) spokesman said Mr Sheikh's death underlined the highly dangerous situation in Lebanon and the need for Australians to continue to exercise extreme caution.

DFAT is seeking to provide consular assistance to the man's family in Melbourne.

The Australian embassy in Beirut was liaising with local authorities regarding his death.